According to a report by the province’s Department of Husbandry and Veterinary, a total of 5,500 ducklings tested positive for the H5N6 avian infection and other 1,000 dead ducklings were buried at the landfill site on Monday.

The ducklings were raised at farms run by the families of Trương Thanh Trường in the district’s Lộc An Commune and Đặng Hương in Lộc Hòa Commune. The ducks were 20 days old.

Trường and Hương found the dead ducks on Sunday. There were some 1,000 dead ducks at each farm.

The farm owners said they bought the ducklings from Hà Nội and suspected that the animals were infected with the virus before their arrival at their farms.

Nguyễn Việt Hưng, the department’s director, said all the ducklings were buried in at a designated landfill site and his staff had conducted fumigation spraying at the farms and surrounding areas to prevent the flu from spreading.

Hưng also warned the farm owners to conduct a stricter vaccination regime for their poultry and husbandry to avoid loss. In the current cases, Trường and Hương incurred estimated losses of some VNĐ200 million (US$8,800) each from the buried ducks. — VNS